and family

Kierra’s Story

Jamie came to Ohio in the summer of 2007 on vacation with Taaron (my brother). I didn’t pay a lot of attention to him at first. As I have many times before I had talked to Taaron’s friends but nothing ever seemed to happen. Later I would find out they already had a girlfriend and weren’t the least bit interested in me. So after being rejected time and time again, I thought Jamie would be the same way. He was older then me and I knew he must have a girl he was dating, or at least one he was interested in.

I talked to him some while he was visiting, but I was working at Wal-mart at the time. I was unable to get time off to spend time with Taaron and his friends. I couldn’t take a lot of time off work due to having to request a lot of time off for weddings that year. I did find out that Jamie was single and he was looking someone to date. Then it came time for him to head back to Florida and get back to his job.

At the end of the summer I moved to Georgia to teach at the same school as Kaelah (my sister). Kaelah had spent till October in Florida finishing up her degree, and then she was coming to live in Georgia with me. She had met Jamie several times and got to him quite well during the time she was in Florida.

Kaelah and Kierra

After Kaelah moved to Georgia she kept on telling me I need to give Jamie a chance and to try to talk to him. Well I was fine with that but the only thing was I was not going to be the one calling him. He eventually found me on MySpace and talked me into getting a Facebook because it was a lot easier to talk and get to know someone on. When I set up my Facebook account, I had put my phone number on my info page. Jamie saw the number and called me. We talked about once every two months or so but not very often. Then he called me on Spring break and told me that he as going over seas for three months for his job.

I e-mailed him as he was leaving and he emailed me back as soon as he could which was about a three day wait. I knew he was traveling and he wouldn’t get settled in completely and have internet. Possibly it could be as long as 1-2 weeks after arriving before he would have the chance to email me! The wait was terrible and I couldn’t stand it. Finally I received his email then he began to email me more and more. Sometimes we had emailed as many as two times a day. Then he had called me some but that was rare because there were many others needing the phone.

When he came back to the states I was able to go down to Florida and see him. We had spent a lot of the time together while I was there and I was visiting and staying at a friends house too. While I was visiting he asked me to be his girlfriend. The date was July 22, 2008.

Being in a long distance relationship we did our best to see each other as often as we could. I traveled to Florida or he would come to visit me in Atlanta. It worked out nicely because Kaelah’s boyfriend Lew was living in Florida as well, so I didn’t have to convince Kaelah to go to Florida with me.

In September 2008 Jamie called my dad with the big question. He wanted to be engaged before leaving to go back overseas in November. Of course my dad granted him permission and we were engaged on October 10, 2008. The Lord had another plan for Jamie and gave him a job that he liked much better and was not a job that had him go overseas for 3 months. He was able to stay in the states and help as much as he could with planning the wedding.

We were married on July 4, 2009 with a double wedding–Lew and Kaelah Ellinger were the other couple.

Kierra and Jamie

Now that you have read Kierra’s story, feel free to read Jamie’s story